LimeCulture conducts Independent Review of Survivors Manchester ISVA Service

LimeCulture was thrilled to be commissioned by Survivors Manchester, a male-only sexual violence support organisation, to carry out an Independent Review of their pilot male-only ISVA service, which is both unique and filling a gap that is badly needed. While there are a very small number of male ISVAs operating in England, there are currently no male ISVAs providing support to only males. This makes the Survivors Manchester ISVA Service the first of it’s kind and we were very keen to explore how this ISVA Service has been set up and how well it has been received.

The first part of the review took place in January 2015. LimeCulture interviewed a range of key professionals from partner agencies (including representatives from the police, SARC, Youth Offending Team, CPS and voluntary and community sector organisations) to seek their views and perceptions of the ISVA Service, explore with them how the ISVA Service is working and to see if they could offer any suggestions as to how best to ensure the service maintains high standards of quality provision moving forward. The feedback from partners about the ISVA Service was overwhelmingly positive. The ISVA Service is clearly doing a great job of engaging with some really difficult to reach young men and all partners acknowledged the need for this vital ISVA service for males. The examples that were provided by other organisations are a testament to the success of the ISVA Service, which some very moving examples shared about how the ISVA Service has made a positive impact on males who have experienced sexual violence, and helped them to access other services. These examples are clear evidence of the impact that an ISVA can have to enable the most vulnerable people in our society to access the support they need.

Clearly all services can be improved and continue to learn and evolve. While Survivors Manchester have an excellent and innovative ISVA Service already in place, they were keen to hear what LimeCulture suggested in order to make the ISVA Service as robust, effective and efficient as possible. The interim findings and key recommendations from the Independent Review have now been published here by Survivors Manchester who are committed to transparency and to responding to our interim recommendations.

LimeCulture will conduct the final part of our Independent Review once the ISVA Service has reached the end of its Pilot Phase. We cannot wait to go back to Survivors Manchester to see how they have got on and find out about their progress.

Surviors Manchester LogoSurvivors Manchester are currently recruiting for a full time male-ISVA to work in their ISVA Service. The advert can be found here along with the job description and details about how to apply for the role. The deadline for applications is 16 March 2015. Due to the nature of the role and the service that it operates within, they are only accepting applications for males.

As there is not a very big pool of trained male-ISVAs in which to recruit from, Survivors Manchester have said they are happy for the advert to be shared far and wide in the hope that they find their perfect candidate for the male-ISVA role. Please do share this with anybody you think might be interested in taking on a challenging yet extremely rewarding career as an ISVA. It is a particularly great time to join this young and dynamic ISVA Service based within an inspirational charity.

 

Lime logo_cmyk-reverseIf you are interested in commissioning LimeCulture to undertake an Independent ISVA Service Review, please contact us to discuss your needs. Please remember, the value of an ‘Independent’ review of your service should not be underestimated! Funders and Commissioners are usually far more interested in the findings from external reviews of your service than relying on ‘you’ telling them how great ‘your’ service is!